In a series of lectures delivered in his usual full-bodied style,
Mumford investigates and attempts to present a solution to the
contemporary clash of man and the machine. Reminding us that
Orpheus as well as Prometheus was a friend to man, that man was a
creator before he was an operator, he says the creative, vital,
subjective man - the human being - is today in danger of becoming a
slave to the tools and techniques which should actually serve to
free him. This theme is not new, but some of the insights the
author gives are. With the invention of mass production, machines
printing, photography, the phonograph man has been bombarded with
images, reproduced and standardized: art loses its uniqueness,
symbols are degraded, man becomes passive. To escape submersion by
the flood of symbols, man must choose the images he wishes to
assimilate "choosing is creating." Mumford points to architecture
as the logical meeting-ground of symbol and function. He comments
on the present state of architecture, pointing out that in
functionalism the machine has become an idol while human values are
neglected. The book is fairly meaty, and the author draws from his
copious knowledge at will. A comfortable and solid dwelling upon
ideas we would do well to consider. The author's plea for balance
and wholeness in a human life, based upon human rather than
mechanical values, will appeal to many thinkers. (Kirkus Reviews)
Lewis Mumford - architectural critic, theorist of technology,
urbanologist, city planner, cultural critic, historian, biographer,
and philosopher - was the author of more than thirty influential
books, many of which expounded his views on the perils of urban
sprawl and a society obsessed with "technics." Featuring a new
introduction by Casey Nelson Blake, this classic text provides the
essence of Mumford's views on the distinct yet interpenetrating
roles of technology and the arts in modern culture. Mumford
contends that modern man's overemphasis on technics has contributed
to the depersonalization and emptiness of much of twentieth-century
life. He issues a call for a renewed respect for artistic impulses
and achievements. His repeated insistence that technological
development take the Human as its measure - as well as his
impassioned plea for humanity to make the most of its "splendid
potentialities and promise" and reverse its progress toward anomie
and destruction - is ever more relevant as the new century dawns.
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